Nature Calls
by elyneri
Summary: Sometimes being a female out in the middle of the woods during a zombie apocalypse can be really inconvenient. A series of short one shots set between episodes Still (12) and Alone (13). I'll leave this mark as completed, but will continue to add one shots to it as I write them.
1. Nature Calls

**A/N:** Just a short one shot that I came up with when I was giving someone a one word prompt.

**Nature Calls**

Life wasn't easy after the turn. It wasn't until the prison that, for a while, life felt a little more pre-turn normal. They had somewhere safe to sleep, a bathroom to use, and a steady supply of food and water. Things that allowed them to keep clean and healthy. Things that made life easier when you had to deal with certain unavoidable body functions.

When Beth woke up, her back was aching and she felt wet. It took Beth a moment to realize that her discomfort didn't come sleeping on the damp, debris littered ground, but something else she hadn't had to deal with since the prison had fallen. The grief of losing her father, the stress of having a stoic companion, and having sporadic, unbalance meals, had thrown her body off. So when Beth finally realized what was probably causing her discomfort, she quickly stood up and excused herself before Daryl turned his attention to her.

After that night of getting drunk on moonshine and burning down a house, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of Beth's shoulders. Beth and Daryl were now communicating verbally. Having actual conversations. It felt like they were actually trying to live and not just survive. Beth found herself able to smile and laugh with ease. They've even been lucky with finding food lately and having a meal to eat every day. So when Beth pulled down her pants and saw blood, she wasn't surprised. It had been well over a month since she last had her period.

Shaking her head, Beth buried her face in her hands. "So frustrating!" she mumbled. The last thing on her mind when they were ransacking anything in sight for supplies was finding something to help staunch the blood during her period. Bleeding and having blood stained clothes would just maker her more of a target for the walkers and harder for her to hide. Beth needed to take care of it before they ran into another herd and had to hide. But there was a giant hurdle that Beth had to get over first: informing Daryl of her predicament.

Beth almost dragged her feet back towards camp, trying to figure out how she was going to tell Daryl. If he had been another female, Beth wouldn't feel so perplex and embarrassed about telling him. But this was Daryl and even if she knew he knew that all females had periods, it was still embarrassing to admit she was bleeding through to her pants. He couldn't empathize with her.

When Beth returned to camp, she stood there for a few seconds, staring at Daryl's back as he kept watch. When he finally turned, Daryl noticed Beth's expression. Confused by her expression, he scrunched his eyebrows together as he asked, "Somethin' a matter?"

Beth couldn't look Daryl in the eyes as she replied, "I started my period."

Daryl was silent for a few seconds. Beth watched his expression go from confusion as to why she was telling him to realization as he said, "Fuck."


	2. The Hairy Monster

**A/N**: I can't be the only one who thinks about these things when watching these sort of shows! XD If you enjoy theses, check out the one I did for Eugene call _Just Like Mama_, another humorous one shot.

Anyways, I know when some of you guys asked me to continue, you meant to continue Nature Call and not to write another one shot. Sorry, but I have few other one shot ideas that I'll be writing and posting here too, but don't worry, I came up with an idea to continue Nature Call! It'll be in another short story format and will be the fourth or fifth one shot posted here. The next one shot after this, that I have written, is different as it looks at a different topic that I brought up in this one shot.

**The Hairy Monster**

When Beth grabbed the yellow polo shirt at the golf course, it wasn't just about the opportunity of changing into a clean shirt. It had sleeves. The cardigan was a bonus and also something she would needed as the weather got chillier.

Back at the prison, all the girls had accepted the fact they could no longer shave their legs even with a bathroom and running water. It would be just a waste of water and supplies. Besides, they needed to wear pants. Unlike shorts, pants protected their legs from getting sunburn or scratches from branches or other possible hazard objects. They couldn't take the chance of a scratch getting infected and wasting precious antibiotics on something that could have been easily avoided. So all the girls resign to their fate of wearing pants and their hairy legs. But there one thing their vanity wouldn't let them compromise on: armpit hair. They wanted the freedom to be able to wear sleeveless shirts during the hot summer months and armpits were a five second shaving job when they had razors.

A week or so after the prison had fallen, Beth felt and notice her armpit air. She became a little self-conscious about her armpits every time she raised her arms in front of Daryl. Years of media exposure of clean shaved armpits and hearing guys saying how disgusting armpit hair was on girls were hard to forget. So whenever Beth wasn't worrying about knifing a walker in the head, she tried not to open her arms too wide or raise them too high. Beth doubted Daryl would have noticed anyways. He was always on guard for walkers and the only words that came out of his mouth was some sort of a command. But that was before the moonshine. Now they were both paying closer attention to each other. And once again, Beth became aware of that hairy monster.

In one of the vehicles Beth and Daryl ransacked, Beth came across a hairbrush. Beth couldn't hide her glee at this discovery. "Just a brush," commented Daryl.

Beth rolled her eyes. "You say that now, but it won't be long before your hair gets long enough where it gets matted and begins sticking to your face and neck. You'll be asking me for the brush then."

"No. I'll just cut it," replied Daryl as he moved on to the next abandon car.

Beth smiled at the image of Daryl taking his hunting knife to cut a tangle out of his hair as she sat on the hood of the car. Daryl had his back to her as he dig through the car. When Beth raised her arms, the sleeves of her yellow polo slide down her arm to her shoulder. Beth ignored it and started untangling her hair from the hair band still in her hair. She was halfway through when Daryl backed out of the car with his arms full. Her arms quickly fell to her sides when Daryl turned towards her and headed in her direction. "Somethin' wrong?" he asked.

Beth shook her head. "My arms just got tired from trying to untangle the hairband stuck in my hair," she lied.

Daryl set the pile of clothes he was holding next to Beth. "Hand me your knife."

Beth handed Daryl her knife. "Don't cut the hairband, I need it."

Daryl leaned over Beth. He held the hairband up between his index finger and thumb as he carefully cut it out of her hair. When he was finished, he leaned back on his heels. "Here," said Daryl as he handed Beth her knife and hairband.

Beth smiled. "Thank you," and slide the hairband on her wrist before putting the knife away

Daryl took a step back to dig in the pile of clothes he placed next to Beth. He pulled out a grey knitted sweater and handed it to Beth. "Don't smell too bad. It'll keep you warm."

Beth grinned as she took the sweater from Daryl. "It's perfect! Thank you, Daryl." She didn't waste time putting the sweater on. With the sweater on, Beth grabbed the hairbrush and started tackling the other hairy monster.


	3. Overly Cautious

**A/N:** Happy Wednesday! Thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and follows! I'm really glad you guys seem to be enjoying them! It makes me want to write some more. It's motivation knowing someone else besides me are reading my writing. XD Here's another one shot to help you through the week and as thanks. It's different from the others as there isn't humor in it like the others previously. Either the next update or the one after, I'll post an one shot of how Beth got out of the house at the end of Alone.

**Overly Cautious**

Some distance down the road, Beth and Daryl could see walkers. The walkers hadn't noticed them yet, so they quickly slipped off the road and headed down the hill. Beth led the way while Daryl guarded their rear. It was slow going as the slope was relatively steep and the underbrush made it unsteady.

Beth was halfway down the hill when the ground gave way from under her feet. She couldn't keep her balance and she tipped forward. Still mindful of the walkers close by, Daryl softly shouted, "Beth!" as he helplessly watched her tumbled the rest of the way down the hill.

Beth came to rest at the bottom of the hill. She landed on her knees and her hands came slamming down on the ground to keep her from face planting. Pain shot through Beth's right hand and she hissed in pain. She sat up and cradled her hand as Daryl quickly made his way down the hill to her side. "You okay?" he asked as he kneeled next to her.

"Yeah, I'm okay. It's just a scratch." Beth saw the concern etched on Daryl's face when she said this. Beth uncurled her fingers and held out her palm to Daryl so he could see.

Daryl grabbed her hand with both of his. Beth sucked a breath in as Daryl fully opened her hand to examine the cut. "Good. It's not deep." Daryl pulled out one of the bottles of their drinking water from her bag. He gently pulled the wound open as he poured water over it to clean the dirt out of the open wound. "This will have to do until we can find a safe spot to make camp."

Beth didn't comment about Daryl being overly cautious. Without access to medicine and antibiotics, even a small cut like this could easily turn deadly from infection if it wasn't properly taken care of. Beth had learned from her dad that you could never be overly cautious of open wounds in this new world.

When Daryl judged they had put enough distance between them and the walkers on the road, they set up camp for the night. Like usual, Beth started to help Daryl until he stopped her. "Sit. I'll take care of it."

"Daryl," Beth said with a little exasperation. "I'm fine." Daryl ignored her and took Beth by her arm as he guided her to sit down.

"Just rest and worry about keeping your cut clean. That was quite a tumble you took." Before Beth could protest some more, Daryl started building a fire before hanging their alarm system up. Beth didn't attempt to try to set up camp when Daryl wasn't looking. He was right, she did take quite a tumble. Beth was fine, but a majority of her body felt bruised. Beth felt like she had hit every single rock that was on that damn hill. She was lucky that she walked away with only a cut on her palm and probably a few bruises.

When Daryl returned, he grabbed the backpack sitting next to Beth on his way to sit by the fire. Beth watched as Daryl built the fire up a little more before taking out a metal rack that they had found in an abandon cabin. He placed it over the fire and set a clean empty can on top of it. Daryl poured some of their drinking water into the can. He reached into the bag and pulled out an old white t-shirt they had found and tore a stripped of the shirt off. After dropping the strip into the water, he covered the can with a slightly larger can lid, and sat back as he waited for the water to boil.

They sat there quietly, staring at the can over the fire and listening for the sound of walkers. Beth didn't need Daryl to tell her to hold off on any conversations. They were still too close to the walkers on the road for comfort. There was a good chance the walkers may head in their direction before they left in the morning and there could be more in the woods.

Daryl bit the side of his thumb as he looked up at the sky. It wouldn't be long until the sun set. Beth could see that Daryl was anxious for the water to boil before then. Once night had fallen, Daryl would put out the fire to keep from attracting any walkers that may be close by. Beth knew Daryl wanted to get her cut cleaned and wrapped up before then. If they end up having to fight off walkers that night, they didn't want to take the chance of Beth's cut getting infected from touching a walker.

When Daryl judged enough time had passed for the water to have boiled for a while, something they both learned from experience, Daryl used the hot pads, another essential item they had found in the abandon cabin, to pull the can from the fire. He poured the boiling water into another empty, clean can so it would cool off quicker. He dumped the strip of shirt into their last empty can and set the hot can back on the fire

After enough time had past. Daryl took the strip of shirt out of the can by its ends. He wrung out as much water as he could before placing it back into the can on the fire, each end of the shirt hanging over the edge of the can. He wanted to dry the shirt as much as possible before wrapping Beth's hand. A few minutes later, Daryl touched the can that had the boiling water in it. It felt cool enough for him to hold without using a hot pad. Beth watched as Daryl poured a little on his fingers to check the temperature. When he judged the temperature of the water wasn't too hot, he approached Beth. "Let me see ya hand."

Beth held out her hand. Daryl held her hand still as he poured the warm water over the cut. They both hope it was enough to keep any infections at bay. If they got lucky the next day and found alcohol, they will pour it over her cut too, but alcohol was hard to come by. It was probably one of the first things to go when the turn happened.

When the sunset was drawing to an end, Daryl removed the strip of shirt from the fire. He gently wrapped Beth's hand. When Daryl finished, they both went to work in putting out the fire and packing up. Neither one of them were going to get much sleep tonight.


	4. Alone

**A/N**: Wow, I was so not planning on writing this, but suddenly it came to me as clear as day randomly, so I had to write it. Enjoy! And don't be shy, let me know what you think!

**Alone**

It took Beth a few seconds to realize that Daryl had left without his crossbow. Her brain was still trying to process everything that just happened into something coherent, like words. A second later, she got up and headed towards the crossbow when she heard Daryl shout. "Beth!" She quickly grabbed the crossbow as the sounds of walkers echoed through down the hallway. Beth was almost the end of the hallway when Daryl called her name again, "Beth!"

When Beth saw Daryl with his back against the door, trying to hold the group of walkers from entering the house, her heart started to race. She tossed Daryl his crossbow. "Run!" he shouted at her, but Beth didn't move a muscle. "Run!" this time he waved his arm as well. But Beth didn't want to leave Daryl. Not there. Not with a bunch of walkers behind him. Daryl could see that Beth wasn't going to leave until he was away from the door. He gave up on telling her to run.

As soon as Daryl was moving away from the door and heading towards her, Beth turned around and ran ahead of Daryl down the hall. She didn't turn around to see if Daryl was following her. He always did. But not this time. Beth heard his voice coming down the hallway, away from her, "Beth pry open a window! Get your shit!"

Beth turned around, backing down the hall towards the kitchen, afraid of leaving Daryl behind. "I-I'm not gonna leave you!" She shouted back.

"Get out!" Daryl's voice was moving further away from her as he led the walkers away. "Go up the road, I'll meet you there!" Beth still hesitated. She didn't want to leave Daryl. Didn't want to leave him alone. By now, Daryl knew Beth well enough that she wouldn't leave him easily, and trying one last time to get her to leave, he shouted, "Go!" before turning his full attention to the walkers behind him.

Beth only hesitated for one second before turning around and heading back to the kitchen. With her ankle injured, Beth knew she would only be a hindrance to Daryl if she tried to help him. He wouldn't focus on keeping himself safe, but on keeping her alive.

Beth shut the door behind her as she entered the kitchen. She shoved the diet coke, pigs feet, peanut butter, jelly, can of green beans, their white trash brunch, off the table. Beth quickly opened the only window in the kitchen before pushing the table against it. Sitting on top of the table, Beth held onto the edge of it as she pulled her knees back. Using both feet, Beth kicked as hard as she could at the wooden boards nailed against the window. Pain shot up her left leg when she made contact. Tears welled up in Beth's eyes, but she ignored the pain as she continued to kick until the wooden boards came off.

When the opening was large enough for her to fit through, Beth looked out the window to make sure there were no walkers lurking near the window. None of the walkers had made it over her side of the house yet. Beth slide out the window, dragging her bag behind her.

Hobbling as fast she could, Beth headed towards the road. She kept looking over her shoulders, looking for Daryl. The closer she got to the road and further away she got from the walkers, the more she focused on trying to find Daryl. He _had_ to be alright. Beth couldn't imagine being alone out there without Daryl. Not anymore.

As Beth turned away from the road and towards the house, she tripped on a rock on the ground. Beth lost her balance. Her bag went flying out of her hand as she fell backwards. When her head hit the ground, her vision went white, a sharp pain on the back of her head, then she lost consciousness.


	5. Nature Call Part 2

**A/N:** Well, here's part 2! I know, probably not what you expected nor did I. What I originally thought I was going to do ended up changing since I thought this was more plausible to happen on the show. There will probably be a part 3, this was a good a place to stop with what I had as ideas for the moment.

Hollytree- Awe, thanks! I just write what comes to mind, so the stories will probably vary. I do have another idea similar to the first two, I just think it might be really short. I'm having fun thinking of different ways to write different ideas or one word prompts I see people get or topics no one ever seem to write about. lol!

**Nature Calls Part 2**

Beth and Daryl stood in silence. Both were thinking about what their next course of action should be. Daryl broke the silence first. "I saw a dirt road earlier when I was out hunting. If we're lucky, it might lead us to a cabin or somethin' that we can hole up in for a while." Beth nodded her head in response, still thinking. She needed to do something about the problem before then.

Suddenly, Beth remembered the white cardigan she picked you at the golf course that Daryl had gotten walker blood on. She had almost chuck it, but decided against it and stuff it in their little backpack. Beth took it out of the bag and started to cut it into strips with her knife. Daryl watched her in silence. "What are you doin'?" he finally asked. Beth looked up at Daryl and rolled her eyes. She didn't answer his question. He would figure it out soon enough.

Beth knew there were only so many options she had when it came to her period. Back at the prison, the old ladies had talked with all the girls about what they had to do back in the day when they were only farmer daughters out in the middle of nowhere. They didn't have the luxuries of pads and tampons back then.

Beth took a couple of strips and headed into the woods to line her underwear. It would do for the moment. Thankfully, Beth hadn't bled all the way through her pants, just her underwear. Although Beth was eating better, it was still nowhere like before the prison fell or before the turn. Her period would probably be relatively light and short. At least she hope it was.

Sometime after sunrise, Beth and Daryl picked up camp and headed out to the dirt road. When they reached the road, Beth asked, "Which way do we go?"

Daryl glanced at the sun before picking a direction. "This way."

"How you know?"

"Cuz the main highway is in the other direction." Daryl started walking down the road. "You need to pay more attention to where we're goin'."

"I know." Beth paused. "It just slipped my mind at the moment." Beth didn't need to explain why it had.

"Ya gotta stay focused in all situations." Beth smiled and rolled her eyes behind Daryl. Before getting separated with Daryl, Beth had learned that Daryl tended to give out advice when it came to surviving. It was thanks to him, that after their farm had burned down, they did so well out on the road during the winter. Rick had been the leader, but Daryl provided the necessary skills they all needed and needed to learn to survive out there.

Beth followed Daryl down the dirt road. She felt cramps beginning, but she ignored them. They were a minor annoyance at the moment. She was never the type to have terrible cramps or to take ibuprofen. Being a farmer's daughter, she was use to having to deal with the occasional discomfort. The turn had only made her stronger.

Around the bend of the road, an old cabin peaked between the trees. Daryl took his crossbow off his back. They circle the cabin, checking to make sure there wasn't any walkers they needed to worry about. Once the perimeter was clear, they cautiously approached the cabin, Daryl leading the way with his crossbow up. Beth followed behind with her knife unsheathed. The only door to the cabin was open. They knew a walker could of stumbled inside.

Daryl stopped on the porch at the open doorway. He didn't lower is crossbow as he banged against the doorframe. They waited for the sounds of walkers. Beth peeked over Daryl into the cabin. From the outside, they could tell it wasn't a large cabin. From the doorway, Beth could see there were a couple of back rooms. One was probably a bathroom and a bedroom or two. After a minute, Daryl went inside and cleared the house. When he confirmed there were no walkers inside, Beth sheathed her knife and followed Daryl inside, shutting the door behind her.


	6. Crossbow

**A/N:** So what I intended for this one shot and what came out was two completely different things towards the end, but this one ended up writing itself. :)

**Crossbow**

Daryl remembered the first time he held a crossbow in his hands. He was still just a boy when Merle gave him his first crossbow. It was Merle's last gift to him before he left Daryl alone with their father. The crossbow became Daryl's most prize possession and an escape from the harsh reality of having the kind of father he had.

Daryl hid his crossbow from his father, so his father couldn't take it when he thought beating him wasn't enough. Whenever Daryl found a chance, he would run out into the woods with his crossbow, somewhere far enough where neither his father nor the neighborhood kids could accidentally stumble onto him while he practice, but close enough that he could hear his father calling for him.

The first time Daryl shot his crossbow was when Merle first gave it to him. Merle showed Daryl how to hold it, load an arrow, aim, and shoot, before handing it over to Daryl. Merle pointed at a tree, "Take a shot little brother." Daryl held the crossbow like Merle had showed him. It was heaving for his child arms. Merle had given Daryl a crossbow made for adults. If Daryl wanted to learn how use a crossbow then he had to learn like a man and not a child. It's how their father taught Merle and it was their father and Merle taught Daryl. To be man.

Daryl could barely hold the crossbow up in position. His arms were starting to shake; he was taking too long to aim. Finally, Daryl pressed the trigger, releasing the arrow. The arrow flew through the air towards the tree. Daryl watched in awe until the arrow flew straight past the tree and Merle burst out laughing. Embarrassed at his failure, Daryl set the crossbow down on the ground, stomping off to go retrieve the missing arrow with Merle's laughter following right behind him.

Daryl practice using the crossbow every chance he got. The next time Merle returned home, Daryl was going to show him he could hit a tree or shoot cans off a fence post. Next time, Merle wouldn't be able to laugh at him. Daryl occupied all his free time with practicing. When his father was indisposed or out for the whole day, Daryl took the opportunity to visit the old man that lived a mile down the road from them. The old man was the one who had introduced Daryl to a crossbow. When Daryl visited him, the old man would give him pointers and lessons on how to use and maintain a crossbow.

During those moments he spent trying to master how to use a crossbow, Daryl felt happy and content with his life at the moment. He could forget all the bad things and feeling so alone in the world. Then one night, his father found his crossbow. In a fit of illogical rage at life in general, Daryl's father broke Daryl's most prize possession, then proceeded to beat him with a piece of it. From that moment on, Daryl's only sanctuary was the moments he could escape from his father to go visit the old man and continue his crossbow lessons.

"Daryl?" Beth's voice brought Daryl back to reality. Watching Beth carry his heavy crossbow in her small hands as she tracked had reminded him of the first time he held his. "Is something a matter?" she asked.

"No." Beth just stared at Daryl, waiting patiently for him to voice his thoughts. Beth had wanted Daryl to teach her how to track and hunt. What she didn't know and he was becoming aware of everyday, that Beth had already mastered these skills; she just only ever applied it to reading people. Just like with hunting or tracking, Beth knew when to wait or when to go in. This made Daryl a little uncomfortable at how well she could read him. It also didn't surprise him that Beth was catching on so quickly to tracking. "Just remembering about when I got my first crossbow."

"Did your dad give it to you?"

"No. Merle gave it to me before he left. Probably stole it from someone."

Beth turned back around, following the trail they were tracking. "Who taught you how to use it?"

"This old man who lived a mile down the road from us," and Daryl told Beth a few stories about him and the old man as they continued to follow the trail.


	7. Mourning

**A/N**: A bonus one shot! This actually takes place after Daryl tells Beth about Zach. I'm actually in the middle of writing another humorous one shot that I'll hopefully have done sometime next week.

**Mourning**

After Daryl left, Beth laid back down on her bed and opened her journal to the page she was on. She held her pen to the page and just stared at it. Her mind was blank. She couldn't remember what she had been writing. The words on the page wouldn't register with her brain.

"Beth?" Beth looked up from her journal. It was Maggie standing at her cell door this time. "Has Daryl talked to you yet?"

"Yea, he was just here." Beth closed her journal again and sat at the edge of her bed.

It was the invitation that Maggie needed to know her presence was welcome. Maggie came into Beth's cell and sat right next to Beth, her arm going around Beth's shoulders, pulling her in. Beth leaned her head against her sister's shoulders, accepting the comfort that she offered. "He was good guy. He didn't deserve to die."

"I know," replied Beth as she closed her eyes, "none of them deserved to die."

They sat there like that for a couple of minutes. Finally, Beth opened her eyes and pulled away from Maggie, letting her know she was fine now. Maggie got up to give her sister some privacy. When she reached the door of Beth's cell, Maggie turned back to look at her sister, "You know I'm here for you anytime you need me. So is Daddy."

Beth smiled. "I know."

That night when everyone had gone to sleep, Beth laid in her bunk wide awake, unable to sleep. Beth tried to focus her thoughts on music, trying to keep her thoughts from dwelling on the day's events. But as her eyes started to fill with water, a tear rolling down the side of her face, she realized she was losing the battle.

Beth needed fresh air. She couldn't stand being shut in her cell waiting for the grief to consume her. Beth threw off her covers and got out of bed. She had to get out now.

The cement ground of the prison felt chilly to her bare feet as she headed towards the exit. Moving around and the chillness of the ground calmed Beth down. When she opened the door to the outside, Beth took a deep breath of the warm Georgia summer air. As Beth moved further into the courtyard of the prison, it didn't feel like the walls of the prison were going to collapse on her.

It wasn't long before Beth notice she wasn't alone outside. Daryl was leaning against the prison wall where Beth last saw Zach alive. The place where he asked if she was going to say goodbye and she said nope. Beth steeled herself and pushed those memories away. She didn't regret not saying goodbye, she didn't have the luxury to regret those things. Not anymore.

Beth headed over to where Daryl was. The ground was still warm from the sun beating down on it all day. Daryl didn't noticed Beth's presence until she was almost on him. When he did notice her, Beth could see his surprise at her presence, but also his understanding. Daryl nodded his head in acknowledgement letting her know her presence was welcome.

Beth leaned against the prison wall next to Daryl. They stood there in silence. The sounds of walkers against the fence filling the night as they each silently mourned Zach.


	8. Canned Yams

**Canned Yams**

"Ugh," Daryl grunted, "This taste like shit." Daryl held out a can of yams to Beth. Beth took it. She could see fingers marks from where Daryl took a taste. They hadn't had a chance to eat anything that morning as a group of walkers were closing in on them. They were still trying to put more distance between them and the walkers and find a safe place to sleep for the night. But they could only keep moving for so long on an empty stomach. So Daryl opened up the can of yams that they could while still being on the move.

Beth used their only spoon to eat the yams. After the first bite, Beth face scrunched up in disgust. "Gross." Beth took another bite. "Do you think its gone bad?" Beth turned the can in her hands looking for an expiration date.

"Pay more attention to where you're walkin' and not at the can." Beth passed the can to Daryl so he could take another bite. She passed him the spoon too. Daryl didn't say anything, but he used the spoon as he took a bite. Beth couldn't suppress a smile when she saw Daryl grimace at the taste. "Doesn't matter 'bout the expiration date. Can't be picky nowadays." After another bite, Daryl handed the can and spoon back to Beth.

"Guess we'll hope it won't settle wrong with our stomachs." Beth took another bite and shuddered at the taste.

They continued walking through the woods. Weaving between bushes, trying to keep to established forest paths, listening for walkers. At one point, Daryl stopped Beth. "Walkers frequent this path."

"How can you tell?" asked Beth. Daryl showed Beth the signs. Kneeling down, he pointed out the zigzag tracks of walkers and the footprints. Beth listened intently. With practice and repetition, Beth was starting to recognize the differences between animal tracks and walkers. She was beginning to see the small details in the surrounding areas that Daryl saw. Beth loved this new skill she was learning. It was opening her eyes to a whole new world. She was starting to notice the little things that stuck out in their surroundings.

After a couple of minutes, they were on the move again, but on a different path. "Looks like the critters like to use this path." Daryl pointed out the signs to Beth without stopping. "Might be leading us to a water source." After some indeterminate amount of time, Daryl paused. "Ya hear that?"

Beth listened for a few seconds. "Sounds like water."

Daryl smirked. "Sounds like a river."

After a couple of minutes, the trees thinned out and opened up to a river. The river was calm and not very wide. Beth noticed a spot where they could cross a few yards up stream. "We're goin' to cross it?" asked Beth.

"Yea, the walkers won't be able follow us if we cross. If we're lucky, there will be less walkers on the other side."

Beth grinned. "And maybe a safe place to sleep."

Daryl nodded his head. "Safer then the last couple of nights." Daryl touched Beth's shoulder for a second, directing her up river. "Come on."

Daryl led Beth to the narrowest part of the river they could cross. Tops of boulders broke the surface of the water. They could hop from one boulder to another to the other side of the river. The river current was swift and would wash them down river if they fell in. So Daryl went first and led the way, showing Beth the easiest way to hop from boulder to another. On the more slippery boulders, Daryl would hold out his hand to Beth to help keep her from slipping. Finally, Daryl hopped to shore. He turned around and held his hand one more time to help Beth ashore. Beth took Daryl's hand and hopped to shore.

"Let's get movin'," mumbled Daryl as he let go of her hand before leading the way into the woods.

They walked in silence for a while. Suddenly, Beth froze. Her arms went around her stomach as the blood drained from her face. She could feel her stomach make very ominous signs. "I think that can of yams was bad," gasped Beth.

"You gotta take a shit too?" Daryl had also stopped moving and was looking at Beth. There were beads of sweat on his face and one of his arms clutching his stomach.

Beth laughed as they both scurried away to their own private bush to empty their stomachs.


End file.
